Living Dangerously

Arriving at work we were confronted by this hysterical seagull as we drew to a halt in the parking space.  It perched there screaming at the car. I got out of the car and it took off but returned in a dive with no let up in the shrieking. As I stood there it swooped around, thankfully not getting too close to me, with no pause in the noise production.
Jan decided this wasn't for her so I drove up to her building, dropped her off, and returned to the parking space. The bird immediately resumed its antics, so I took the chance to grab a photo or two.  After that I quickly got out of the car, grabbed my stuff, and walked under the trees so the bird had less opportunity to attack.
Later in the day I was walking past the building and there, at the foot of the wall, were three rather cute chicks wandering around looking a bit nervous.  So that is why the parent was behaving in its rather strange way. The chicks have probably hopped from the nest on the roof and are now vulnerably wandering around on the ground.
This hopping out of the nest and surviving on the ground seems to work when the birds are more developed. Then they are as big as the parent even if they still can't fly, and they only have to survive a week or so before they can take off.  Being that big a cat would think twice before taking them on and even a fox would have to be fairly hungry to consider taking on both parents and chick.
Unfortunately these chicks are far too small and I don't give much for their chances.  Even with such a guardian parent around they look to be easy prey for a fox or cat. But I hope I'm wrong in my pessimism!